Sunday, December 6, 2009

Weekly Training: November 30 - December 6


This week I nursed a sore knee, resulting in a week of reduced mileage, 22 miles total.  After two days of running very short distances (2 miles Monday and 4 miles Tuesday), followed by two days of rest, I tested the knee with a slow and easy 2-mile run Friday morning at 11.5 pace.  It still felt fairly good Saturday after I ran 6 miles at 10.0 pace.  Sunday, I followed with an 8-mile run at 10.33 pace.  The last mile of this run brought some returning knee pain.

I will continue for now with reduced mileage and additonal rest, and build the distance back gradually.

4 comments:

Brian said...

Sounds like a plan. Nice picture on your blog header.

Vern said...

Thanks! I'd been thinking about customizing a header, and that photo was a leftover I didn't use in my 11/15 post. I played around with cropping it different ways, and it seemed to work OK...

A Plain Observer said...

I like the picture!
have you tried crosstraining? it might help the knee heal faster without losing any fitness.

Vern said...

I do a little crosstraining, but running is my mainstay. Some weeks, I bicycle instead of taking a total rest day. I also do some combination of either light dumbbell or pushup workouts, and crunches every week.

If I severely cut back on running, I'll probably bicycle to maintain a reasonable level of conditioning. Biking is an all-weather substitute that I like; I can do neighborhood loops if the weather is decent, and if the weather is bad, I have a stationary bike indoors.

Last March, I was unable to run at all for over two weeks (could just barely walk) because of heel pain. It was right before a race I had scheduled. Using the bikes every day got me through until the pain was manageable, and the race went well. Since then, I got better shoes, and arch supports to help my overpronation, and my heel pain is virtually gone.

Thanks!!